Community Savings Investment Promotion (COMSIP) and Technical Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TEVETA) have trained 142 community-level artisans to further impart technical and vocational knowledge and skills to young people from Blantyre rural, Balaka, Phalombe and Chiradzulu to ensure they are economically productive for improved livelihood.
Those that were trained include welders, fabricators, carpenters, hairdressers designers and tailors.,
They were trained for four days at Machinga Teachers Training College to maintain TEVETA guidelines and standards in the course of training young people in technical and vocational skills to ensure quality and marketable products and services.
Speaking at the close of the training, Director of Youth in the Ministry of Youth, Judith Msusa, cautioned the community artisans against sexual harassment of girls and young women, saying artisans that engage in the malpractice will be brought before the law.
She added that the community-level artisans’s role was to protect girls and young women against all sexual offences.
She, therefore, commended COMSIP and TEVETA for organising the training and expressed hope that the knowledge and skills gained will trickle down to young people who are required to embrace technical and vocational skills for their sustainable livelihood.
“Research has shown that many girls and young women are being vulnerable to many forms of sexual harassment in their workplaces,” Msusa added while encouraging girls and young women to report any exploitation at the workplace.
TEVETA Director of Training Programmes, Modesto Gomani, said the authority intends to train more young people, considering that they constitute a larger percentage of Malawi’s population.
He said the training and youth empowerment is in line with the Malawi Vision 2063 agenda that aspires to see young people ahead of things.
Gomani therefore expressed hope that the artisans will impart relevant technical and vocational knowledge and skills to young people
Representative of the trained artisans, Maxwell Kamwendo who does welding and fabrication in Balaka also hailed COMSIP and TEVETA for training them to impart knowledge and skills to the young people who expect to be self-reliant
He promised that the newly trained artisans would deliver according to TEVET guidelines and standards to ensure exceptionally skilled young people.
